Friday, June 30, 2006

Perhaps the federal Cons now have their own funding scandal.

This is the gift that keeps on giving. Ultimately, it's a minor point: either the Cons didn't have to count convention fees as donations, and were right therefore not to; or, they did have to, and they'll have to pay a fine. No one's going to go to jail over this. But, still, the Cons' first instinct is to attack their accuser:

The Tories said there is no such rule and claimed that Elections Canada had already audited the 2005 convention in Montreal.

Of course, as the very next sentence points out:

"Elections Canada has not audited the books of the Conservative Party regarding this convention," said the release from [Jean-Pierre] Kingsley [chief electoral officer with Elections Canada], adding Elections Canada has no legal authority to compel such an audit.

It's amazing to me that people who played such a canny political game in the last election are blowing it now. Don't they get that continuing to deny this, instead of shutting up and letting it die down, is all that's keeping the story brewing?